European universities have long been at the forefront of producing groundbreaking science, theories, and concepts that shape our understanding of the world. However, they have also played a central role in constructing and reproducing gendered and racial hierarchies, entrenching inequalities within academia and beyond.
This talk examines how European academia sustains pervasive hierarchies that determine who participates in, benefits from, and is recognized as capable or deserving of taking part in knowledge production. It also explores how current European Union initiatives confront entrenched power imbalances, systemic privileges, and patterns of exclusion that continue to shape the structures and practices of European academia.
Rather than accepting universities as neutral or meritocratic, Pereira invites reflection on what it would mean to reimagine them as democratic institutions, linking education and knowledge production to the right to participate in shaping collective futures. Can universities move beyond their legacy as elite projects to become engines for conviviality, inclusion, and democratic renewal? Participants are encouraged to consider how knowledge production might be transformed to foster justice, solidarity, and shared responsibility, envisioning a radically inclusive European academia.
Bruna Cristina Jaquetto Pereira is a postdoctoral fellow at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, specializing in the intersection of gender and race. Her research critically examines how these systems of discrimination shape power dynamics. She earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Brasília (2019), where she founded the Black Women’s Study Group to promote the work of Black women scholars. Her doctoral research included a Fulbright-funded visit to UC Berkeley (2017–2018). From 2022 to 2025, she held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship, focusing on gender and race discrimination in European universities. In 2025, she received the Emma Goldman Award from the FLAX Foundation.
IWM Rector Misha Glenny will moderate the discussion.
